My wife had completed her undergraduate degree in Speech and Hearing
Sciences earlier in the year, but in order to complete her dream of becoming
a Speech-Language Pathologist, she needed a post-graduate degree, and at the
end of our second year of married life, which was also the end of my third
year of teaching at that university in eastern Washington State, we decided
to move away to a place where she could pursue her studies: The University
of Arizona in Tucson.
I had decided to pursue my PhD in French at the same time so as to be better
qualified to teach university-level French, and both my wife, who by this
time was fluent in French, and I received TA positions in the Modern
Language department of the University of Arizona.
Unfortunately this didn't bring in much money, and besides, I would learn
just a few weeks into my doctoral program that people who lived in the
United States who had PhDs in French generally did ended up doing something
like driving taxi. I didn't want that, so at the end of my first semester, I
quit the program, and I convinced myself that my teaching days were over.
My first goal was to seek employment, and it wasn't long before I learned of
a position that was available as a financial planner. Of course, my
training was not in anything that vaguely resembled numbers, but I had
always had a love for math, and to my amazement, I was given the job.
Somehow I knew, even from the first day, that I was in the process of
leaving my first love behind, that I was abandoning the career path that God
had laid out before me. Nonetheless, I pursued this job with all of my
might. It was actually fun at first, and according to my boss, I did well. I
met some really great clients who immediately put their trust in me; and
most importantly, I was able to keep food on the table and a roof over our
heads. My wife and I also found that we loved Tucson. We loved the desert,
we loved the cactus, we loved the winter -- or in our view, lack of it
-- and we were content to stay where we were.
Ever in the back of my mind, however, was the idea that this was not what
God wanted me to do. But how could I go back to teaching? French wasn't
exactly the second language of choice in the southwestern part of the United
States. I would have been far better off if it were Spanish I was offering
instead of French. And despite my early successes at the university and high
school in eastern Washington State, I knew it would be incredibly difficult
to return to a similar post. In fact, the university where I had met my wife
had cut the French program for funding reasons as soon as I resigned.
I had only one thing to do: I had to trust my Heavenly Father that this was
all only for a season, that somehow He would guide me back into the career
He had given to me. I began to lean on this text from Psalms: "The Lord is
my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart
exults, and with my song I give thanks to Him." (Ps. 28:7 ESV)
I would learn one very important lesson from those days when I was not
walking in God's will: Despite my turn away from teaching, He still loved me
and, as we will see in later devotionals, He already had a plan in place for
bringing me back into His will. In the meantime, I knew from my success as a
Financial Planner that my Heavenly Father was with me.
In His love,
Rob Chaffart